8
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.
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“…Ah.”
Slowly, his consciousness was drawn back up from the cold, dark depths.
Quietly, he remembered to breathe, and air filled his empty body. More, more. He sought oxygen as if he was drowning. He opened his mouth wide, and…
“Pipe down, asshole.”
“Mgh.”
Something was shoved into his mouth quite brusquely.
He opened his eyes to see what had happened but couldn’t see anything. Apparently, something was wrapped around his face and was covering his eyes. But he could tell someone had shoved something into his mouth.
The taste of dirt and grass, something big and solid… Subaru quickly realized it was a shoe.
Someone had shoved the toe of their shoe into his mouth.
“Ugh! Blgh! Wh-what are…? Agh!”
“What do you think you’re doing? Do you not get the situation you’re in?”
“Geh, pwah.”
Right after he’d spit it out, the shoe landed right in his stomach. The man bent down as Subaru gasped and sputtered, and then he spit on Subaru.
As all of this happened, Subaru’s head was still spinning.
He couldn’t see, he did not know what was going on, and all of a sudden, he was being beaten up.
And to top it all off, when he tried to rub his aching chest, he found his arms were tied behind his back. His legs seemed to be tied as well, so standing or running away was out of the question.
“Wh-what…?”
“Ah? How long are you gonna keep—”
“C’mon now, calm down! He doesn’t know anything. Let’s at least undo the blindfold.”
“Tch.”
Subaru writhed, drool dripping from his mouth, while the two men argued over something. The second one pacified the violent one a bit, who then grumbled and seemed to move away in annoyance.
And then came a reasonable-sounding man’s voice.
“Sheesh, sorry about all that. I’m sure you can’t really tell what’s going on, but I’m going to take off the blindfold for now. Sorry, but I can’t untie your hands or feet.”
“ ”
Though Subaru did not answer, the man slowly reached for his head and undid the tightly tied blindfold. There was a little bit of pain, then a sense of release. Subaru took a deep breath, enduring the pain in his chest, and waited quietly for his vision to return.
“—What is this place…?”
When he could see again, he saw a bunch of tents and campfires. And then he saw men busily moving all around, equipped with swords and armor.
The best description that came to his mind in that moment was—
“…This looks just like a Taiga drama.”
It had nothing to do with the biome he was in. No—it was like a scene straight from a lavishly produced period piece. A camp busy preparing for a battle that was just about to begin.
It was almost like a historical recreation.
No, that’s not it.
“We found you when we went to fetch some water. Sorry, but you’re our prisoner now.”
The person who moved in front of him was presumably the man who’d undone his blindfold.
He put his hands on his hips and looked at Subaru with a good-natured sort of troubled expression.
Subaru Natsuki had become a prisoner.
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